What Is the Conscience?

Today it’s common to hear about people being “socially conscious” or having a “social conscience.” We hear about the need for corporations to be socially conscious, meaning they should care for the environment and natural resources, or help the less fortunate with business profits. We also hear about famous people who go to help in other countries; they are admired and said to have a social conscience. Charitable works are surely admirable, and as believers in Christ we should take heed to the words of the Lord Jesus telling us that we should remember the poor, be cheerful givers, and love our neighbor as ourselves. But concerning the definition of conscience, as Christians we must look to the Bible, and not merely to society’s meaning today. In this podcast, we’ll consider some verses and study notes from the Recovery Version to see what the Bible says about our conscience. Every human being, regardless of culture, ethnicity, or background, has a conscience. Our conscience is the part of our human spirit that tells us when we’ve done something wrong, when we’ve offended God. Listen to what Romans 2:15 says: “Who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness with it and their reasonings, one with the other, accusing or even excusing them.” The study note on conscience says this: “Man’s conscience corresponds with the God-created human nature and enables man to know what God justifies and what He condemns.“ How can we know what God justifies, or approves of, and what He condemns? How can we know when we’ve sinned or offended God? That’s the role of our conscience. When we’ve sinned, offended God, or offended others, the job of our conscience is to let us know. It acts like a smoke alarm, sounding out when we’re wrong and remaining quiet when we have no problem with God. We’ve all heard the voice of our conscience when we’ve sinned or done something that doesn’t correspond with God’s holy, righteous, or loving nature. Our conscience convicts us, no matter how we try to suppress its voice or attempt to reason our actions away. It persists in condemning us. This is actually a good thing; otherwise, we’d be like a house without a smoke alarm; we wouldn’t know when we’re under God’s disapproval. Our conscience lets us know in no uncertain terms what God condemns. Because of our conscience, we knew right from wrong even before we were saved. When we were unsaved, our conscience told us that we were sinful and in need of a savior. After we’re saved, the Lord lives in our spirit, and our conscience is even more sensitive and active than before. It tells us when we’ve sinned, and our sins create a problem between us and God, disrupting our fellowship with Him. What is a good conscience? First Timothy 1:5 says, “But the end of the charge is love out of a pure heart and out of a good conscience and out of unfeigned faith.” Note 3 on this verse explains what a good conscience is: “A good conscience is a conscience without offense (Acts 24:16).” Our conscience is “good” not because we’ve done good deeds, but because it’s without offense. We have a good conscience when we have nothing our conscience must condemn us for. Our conscience is good when we haven’t offended God or anyone else. So according to what we see in God’s Word, it’s quite possible for us to do good works, to be socially conscious, to help the poor and assist those in need, yet still not have a good conscience. It all depends. If we’ve offended God, our conscience condemns us; at that time, we don’t have a good conscience, a conscience void of offense, regardless of the charitable acts we’ve performed. Those acts cannot expunge, outweigh, or cover an offense against God in the conscience. Since we’re still fallen sinners even after we’re saved, we’re prone to sin. It takes no effort on our part to offend God by sinning or disobeying Him, or to offend others by our words or actions. And when we do, our conscience condemns us. So how can we have a good conscience, one without offense? Many times when our conscience makes us aware we’ve sinned, our first reaction is to reason in our mind to justify or excuse our actions to ourselves. But actually, only the blood of Christ can purify our conscience and deal with the offenses there. Hebrews 9:14 gives us this wonderful word: “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Christ’s blood alone, not our doing good works, making up our mind to do better, or regretting our wrongdoing, can purify our conscience and wash away our offenses....